Polishing barber hone?

I have this barber hone that I'm determined to use for some reason. It's called a Barber's Choice, by Boss. The cardboard box says to use it for four to six swipes to refresh the blade.

Here's the thing: I lapped it on 400 grit and 800 grit sandpaper, and now it seems like it's pretty coarse.

I did a bunch of strokes on my Norton 4000 to make an even bevel, then I did a half dozen strokes on the barber hone. When I compare the scratch pattern to those from the barber hone, I can see that the barber hone scratches are bigger. (I'm using the 60x RadioShack microscope.)

Would polishing the barber hone on a higher grit paper make the hone finer, or do I just have a coarse hone? That would be weird, because the original instructions seem to indicate that the hone would be pretty high grit.

Nothing you can do will make your hone "finer" grit wise. That's built into the hone. This doesn't mean that the hone you have won't work for you. Just takes a lot of practice.

Until you have the practice under your belt, it's difficult to tell if it's the hone, or if it's you. Most often, it's not the equipment.

Most barber hones are medium to medium fine grit. Some are finer. I'm not familialr with the hone you mentioned. Sounds like it should work fine. Hard to tell without seeing it up close.

I wouldn't get so caught up in looking at scratch patterns under magnification. Concentrate more on your techniques(honing and stropping) and learning how to "feel" for a good edge.

Scott

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Originally Posted by joshearl

I have this barber hone that I'm determined to use for some reason. It's called a Barber's Choice, by Boss. The cardboard box says to use it for four to six swipes to refresh the blade...

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I have an old hone labled "Barber's Pride." I wonder if they're related.

It is flat and works fine.

Once you have lapped a Barbers hone the first impression is that they are more coarse than before. Only the surface texture is coarse, the size of the abrasive grian remains the same. The texture will smooth out with use. You could lap the Barbers hone with the 4K Norton to hasten this process.

Pay attention to the quality of the shave, not the scratch pattern.

Just my two cents,:)

This is why I do all of my lapping with my 12K Chinese stone. Of course, the 12K was first lapped on my granite lapping plate with 800 then 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper to ensure it was true.

I started doing this because at one time my 4K side of my Norton picked up some lose grit from the sandpaper I was using to lap it. I had a heck of a time fixing the problem until I tried the 12K stone...fixed the problem and I've never used anything else since.

Ed

"Once you have lapped a Barbers hone the first impression is that they are more coarse than before. Only the surface texture is coarse, the size of the abrasive grian remains the same. The texture will smooth out with use. You could lap the Barbers hone with the 4K Norton to hasten this process."

Ahh, this explains it! I recently bought a lithide hone and the other night I just finished lapping it and was frustrated as hell because it feels coarse, and most definately does not have the smooth finish that it had when I bought it. I lapped it using an 800 grit hone and then went up a progression to a 6K hone. Should I try polishing again on the 6k hone to get that finish, or should I just start sharpening my razor? Will the lithide hone behave as a fine finishing hone while the surface feels coarse, or will it damage the edge until the polished surface returns?

About the Lithide... I never managed to get the mirror surface on it. I lapped it with another Lithide, and still no go. Also, I have honed on it a bit, and my conclusion is that it's grit is somewhere between 5000-6000 grit. I am shaving with my Simmons straight off the Lithide, and it's no more comfortable than the N8000 edge.

Nenad

"About the Lithide... I never managed to get the mirror surface on it. I lapped it with another Lithide, and still no go. Also, I have honed on it a bit, and my conclusion is that it's grit is somewhere between 5000-6000 grit. I am shaving with my Simmons straight off the Lithide, and it's no more comfortable than the N8000 edge."

Really? That sucks. The whole reason I bought the hone is because I thought it would add a nice finishing touch after my Japanese water stone 6K hone. Do other folks have this same experience with the lithide? Do you have any suggestions for a barber hone that will serve my intended purpose?